


An Awfully Big Adventure

by JayseHasNoGrace



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Harry Styles as Captain Hook, Louis Tomlinson as Peter Pan, M/M, Takes place directly after the original story, There is growth don't worry if some things bother you about the characters in the beginning, Warning: harsh violence and death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-07 19:18:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7726597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayseHasNoGrace/pseuds/JayseHasNoGrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The old Captain Hook is tired. Harry comes along (almost dead), having become horribly lost and Hook helps him, but tells him he has to become the next Captain Hook. And almost forgets to mention the persistent boy who is the ringleader of the Lost Boys. He explains the rules and that Harry (as the new Captain Hook) has to continue the feud with Peter Pan. Although there have been a long line of similar looking Hooks, Harry doesn't look quite similar enough and Louis notices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I usually don't like AUs or at least AUs that don't somewhat reasonably fit with a lot of canon, but I was just surprisingly taken in by a fanart picture I found (by pass-the-pencil on Pinterest). It shows Peter Pan Louis floating behind Captain Hook Harry, holding a dagger to his throat and saying "I told you, Captain, you can’t get me."

Harry awoke slowly, unable to move, and coughed weakly.

“Oh, good, you’re alive. Here.” A tall, blurry figure kneeled over him and slowly poured a small trickle of water into his mouth.

“Thank you,” Harry croaked. He had no idea where he was or what was happening, but he was too tired to figure it out, so he simply lay there.

“Come on,” the voice spoke again, “you’ve got to at least try to hang in there. I’m not sure what happened before your boat wrecked, but it looks as if you hadn’t eaten for quite a while beforehand. And your skin is yellow, probably really need water as well.”

Harry started to remember. His ship! She was wrecked? He hoped she would be fixable...then he remembered the weeks before. The feeling of quickly losing hope after sailing for so long, certain he was lost. The rest of the small crew had abandoned him in the middle of the night, making off with the dinghy, but he doubted they’d been much better off than him. Then he’d run out of food. The ship scared away any sort of ocean life and there was never any land in sight. He had spent much of his time just bringing up buckets of water to boil to stay alive after he’d finished the rest of the brandy.

“She’s a /ship/,” he corrected, “not a boat. And who are you?”

The man laughed.

“That little thing? Well if you say so. I am called...Robert. How did you get out here? I had always thought me and my crew were the only ones on these waters?”

“I’m honestly not sure. I had been heading for South America and I’m sure I got very lost. It’s been months and months and I haven’t seen land since I left. My crew abandoned me and I haven’t the faintest clue where I am.”

“South America? You’re...so you’re from...hmm,” the man shifted to look over Harry more carefully. 

“You are in a place called Neverland,” he finally continued.

“Neverland? I’ve never heard of that? What ocean are we in? What continent?”

Robert sighed.

“Neverland. It’s just Neverland, all of it I’m afraid.”

“But--but, what /is/ it?”

“I’m afraid you have likely taken the entrance through the Atlantic area? There were storms, you said? Any whirlpooling? Anything strange with your compass? Perhaps around place called ‘Bermuda’?”

Harry gasped.

“No! I thought when It calmed that I’d managed to make it out of the Triangle! You mean I’m in a completely different place?”

Robert gave a wry smile.

“Yes, although I can’t remember anymore how I got here, I heard that the captain before my predecessor arrived in much the same way. That brings me to another point...I am getting old and tired. I’m afraid I’ll need to ask you a favor in return for saving your life.”

“Okay, I suppose that’s only fair,” Harry responded hesitantly.

“Let’s get you up first. This is a conversation that should take place in my office.”

He helped Harry up gently and supported him until he sat down heavily in a velvet chair in Robert’s office.

“I will get you some more water and a bit of gruel. I doubt your stomach can handle much more right now.”

Harry weakly nodded and looked around the room. It wasn’t anything spectacular. It was cramped and dark, only lit by two gas lamps. The dark wood walls seemed to be closing in on him, as did the assorted knick knacks that further crowded the space. Behind the desk was a large oil painting. At first he assumed it was of Robert, but the nose was notably different, and there was a large mole on the painted chin. The face was also longer and more dour looking, but the painting had the same long, curly black hair and bright, ruffled red coat and plumed hat. The painting, Harry noticed, also seemed to have a wickedly gleaming hook in place of its left hand.

Robert entered the room again and placed a small bowl and mug in front of him.

“Thank you. Er, if you don’t mind me asking, who is in the portrait?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. That was the original Captain Hook. I believe his real name was Francis, but that may just have been a myth, he lived many, many years ago. Anyway, you see, Neverland is a strange place,” he shook back his left sleeve and Harry gasped. How had he not noticed before? The metal cuff covered the end of Robert’s arm and was inset with a large hook, which glowed in the candlelight. Harry thought it looked quite sinister. 

“You see this? This is the root of the legend. This was actually a replacement for the original Hook’s left hand. Shortly before Francis died, however, he started to get a strange feeling that he wasn’t going to be around much longer. Then a man arrived who bore an uncanny resemblance to him and Francis decided to hand over the ship to him. Along with the ship, though, he left the new captain his legacy. He’d built up quite a reputation as a formidable pirate and he didn’t want that to go to waste. He also figured his eerie longevity would help inspire terror in his challengers.

"The new captain took on his title as the new Captain Hook and wore the hook on his left hand, although he hadn’t lost it yet. Every single Hook has at some point lost their hand in some strange way or another. I lasted quite a long time though...for me it was a croc, he tore it off before...anyway, I think that’s how I knew my time was really ticking, I was just so tired, and so I just had to accept...that the next adventure was soon to come. Ever since Francis, Neverland has had a strange way of bringing similar replacements when the present Hook becomes too old and tired. You see, I think that is why you are here. Your hair is lighter and you are so baby faced -- those big eyes aren’t very intimidating, but you’ll have to do. I need you to take my place as Captain Hook, the most feared pirate of Neverland!”

Harry was speechless.

“The crew won’t mind, and the reputation will keep your from most trouble,” the present Hook assured him nervously.

“But...I don’t know anything about this place! And I don’t know any of the crew or how to be a pirate, I’m just a foolish explorer that can’t even go anywhere without getting lost! I can’t do this, I need my hand! I’m only sixteen, I’ve got to get home.”

Hook looked grave.

“I know Neverland, and if you are my replacement, it’s not going to let you go. You’re stuck here laddie, you really don’t have a choice. I’m just filling you in on the details.”

Harry looked ready to cry.

“Oh laddie, don’t look like that. Firstly, it’s not very intimidating for Captain Hook,” he paused and continued more gently, “It will be okay, I promise. /I/ couldn’t remember anything but my name (which, by the way, you are now the only one that knows my real name so don’t take that information for granted). I made it through just fine, and the crew respects me. They’re good men. As for the hand, you’ll probably keep it for a good while yet, until then, just hold the hook in your sleeve in front of company. That’s what I always did.”

“Are you sure? I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing about anything.”

“Trust me, you’ll be fine.”

“But where are you going to go?”

Hook smiled sadly.

“I’m done now, I had a good run. I’ve been here for a long time, much longer than you would probably suspect. I am tired, and I’m ready for whatever’s next, be it a new world or nothing at all.”

“You’re going to die?”

“Yes, boy. It’s not really so serious as all that after a while. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll understand later, but death and life are very strange things in Neverland. I suspect I could hang around for a century yet if I had wanted,” he said wistfully.

“A century? How /old/ are you?”

“Not quite sure. Time is inconstant here, but I’d suspect maybe a century and a half? I should’ve died many a time, but unless I want to or Neverland believes it’s time, I won’t. I was swallowed whole by that crocodile after it took my hand just a couple months ago, and look: here I am! That reminds me. There is one more important thing,” he hesitated, unsure how to explain.

“What is it? This place is beyond strange, I doubt anything could shock me /more/.”

“There is a boy. Well, there are many, scattered over the island, which is just over there a few knots,” he waved in a vague direction, “but their leader goes by the name of Peter Pan. I can hardly remember how it started, but we came to a...rivalry a good many years back. I do not think it is the same boy, but my predecessor warned me of three others like him in the past. They constantly thwart Hook and never age. They lead a band called the Lost Boys and they’re friends with the fairies. One ran off to your world with a girl who came here by mistake, and I believe the other two must have been eventually defeated by Hook. 

“There may be a similar legacy pattern going on there, I’m not sure, but I am secretly a little fond of him. He’s like the son I never had. Very mischievous though, he and the boys were the one’s who ended up getting me into that blasted pit of crocodiles, most likely as revenge for the disappearance of their Wendy Darling. Another little girl accidentally come here with her brothers. I think Peter especially was quite fond of her. Anyway, you’ll want to antagonize him, set up nefarious plots, the like. Don’t go too hard on him though, I don’t know anything about the others, but I just have a feeling that this one’s special. Don’t worry /too/ much though, he’s the same as me: Neverland won’t let him die unless it’s what she wants.”

“Woah. How do I do this though? I barely know what a nefarious plot /is/?”

Hook laughed.

“You’ll be fine, kid. The crew’ll help. I’ll give you a few days to get your strength back and I’ll tell them there’s going to be a switch, but after that you’re on your own.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Hannah, darling! Go get your brothers for dinner!” A woman’s voice called from down the stairs, and the girl in the room carefully marked her place in her book and set it down.

Louis sighed and stretched out from his curled position as she left the room. He had been resting his chin on his hand on the windowsill, carefully far enough to the side that he was blocked from view by the curtains. 

He had been occasionally checking in on Wendy...well, Hannah, as he’d found out she was actually called. Not that Louis could particularly talk about fake names. She had been such an /interesting/ and fun addition to the Lost Boys and he often missed her company. Still, it was true he often forgot she existed. 

And yet the same went for many things. If Hook wasn’t around, he often forgot there were pirates after them at all. He neglected to learn most of the Lost Boys’ names either, as they were all generally similar. They often disappeared or died, usually from sickness, some sort of animal, or Hook’s crew, but he was always going out to get more children from their beds so he didn’t think there was much of a difference. He wasn’t sure anymore how long ago it had been that Wendy and her brothers had decided to go back, and he was sometimes startled by the changes in them between his visits.

Louis was well aware that time passed differently in Neverland than it did here, but it was still a bit alarming to think that one day he might come back and Wendy -- er, Hannah -- wouldn’t be there anymore. Her brother John was already growing a small beard! 

He pushed off of the window and flew away into the evening sky.

*****

“Peter! Peter, where have you been? Tink said you wouldn’t let her come along and you’ve been gone for /hours/,” one of the lost boys (possibly the one named Niall) whined.

Louis crossed his arms and landed gracefully. Tink? Oh, yes. Well, he’d forgotten about her too.

“None of your business,” he replied haughtily, “it was personal and it doesn’t concern you.”

Another boy snickered.

“Watch out Peter, you’re starting to sound,” he paused, and finished the sentence in a dramatically hushed voice, “/grown up/.”

Louis scowled at him.

“Never!” he swooped back into the air and did a few loops over their heads. “I know! Let’s go collect fruit for a feast tonight!”

There was a collective cheer from the small group of unwashed boys and they all scattered into the forest.

*****

Louis was hanging upside down from a tree, eating part of a pineapple (that he /should/ have been taking back to add to the feast) when the tree shook violently. He let his legs go and flew upright, only to see that Hook’s ship had somehow silently pulled onto the beach when he wasn’t paying attention. Hook was visible in his obnoxiously red coat, watching from the deck as his crew stormed forward, throwing rocks. They had a net and most were armed with knives.

Louis laughed and gliding up higher, doing a backflip and kicking the two of net-bearers in the face. He swooped down and snatched up one of their daggers, and kicked another crew member in the stomach, using the force to launch himself back into the air. He hovered just out of reach of the last three, taunting them. 

“Oh, come on guys. How long have you guys been doing this? And you’re still useless?”

He threw the partially eaten pineapple (which he had somehow managed to keep a hold on the whole time) at the back of one of their heads and the crew member collapsed. Then he flew down to smash the last two standing crew members’ faces together.

“Ah! Young love!” he said jokingly, dramatically pretending to faint as he floated himself toward the deck of the ship.

Harry was apprehensive. Robert had said a boy, and Harry supposed it was true that he /was/ a boy, but he himself was only sixteen, and while this Peter Pan had seemed younger from far away because of his tiny stature, now that he was getting closer Harry could see he looked about fourteen. Certainly not the mischievous eight year old he had expected.

He was also so quick and /energetic/ which surprised him a bit. And /he could fly/. How had Robert not told him that? He quickly lunged toward Pan once he was within reach (although he wasn’t entirely sure what he would do if he caught him). 

“Nah-ah!” Louis laughed as he flipped over Hook’s head, stealing his hat. He held the dagger in front of Hook’s throat and held Hook’s hat out tauntingly just in his field of vision. He peered around the side of Hook’s head to speak.

“I told you, Captain, you can’t--” he stopped suddenly, giving him an appraising look that Harry thought was much to adult for the boy’s juvenile face and demeanor, “--get me...Hello. Who are you?”

Louis floated down to stand in midair so he was just taller than this pretend-Hook, although he kept the knife at his throat and twirled the stolen hat just out of reach.

“What do you mean? I am Captain Hook, most feared pirate in Neverland,” Harry said uncomfortably. Apparently this /Pan/ didn’t know the meaning of personal space.

Louis leaned even closer so that his nose nearly touched pretend-Hook’s cheek.

“Really? How interesting. And here I thought he was completely different. Honestly, you’re not even a good liar. You’ll never convince anyone like that,” he chided.

“I /am/,” Harry protested weakly.

Louis took away the dagger, swiftly holstered it, and flipped upside down, twirling a strand of pretend-Hook’s hair around his finger.

“Alright, Curly. Firstly, your hair is much too light, and you have such a baby face,” he pinched Curly’s cheek teasingly. He abruptly flipped right side up and continued, “mean old Hook didn’t have that.”

He tilted his head and peered closely at Curly’s eyes. “And those big green eyes, /my/ Hook certainly didn’t have those! He would’ve sooner cut them out than have something match /my/ outfit.”

He finally backed up a bit and Harry saw that he was, indeed, wearing all green. A pair of green shorts that didn’t quite make it to his knees and a ragged green shirt that was much too loose. He also had several vines wrapped around his hips that he appeared to be using as a utility belt, and a small green hat, which was a silly, pointy little thing (but no more ridiculous that Harry’s plumed monstrosity of a headpiece).

“And he was much better at holding that fake hook /all/ the way inside his sleeve.”

He pushed Curly’s hook further into the sleeve so his hand could no longer be seen.

“There. So who are you?”

“I-I’m Harry.”

“Hmm, so where is Hook?”

“I /am/ Hook.”

Louis gave him a look.

“We’ve been through this, /Harry/.”

“N-no, really. He told me I had to take his place as Hook because it was time for him to go.”

“Go where?”

“He killed himself, said he was so old he was done here and he wanted to see what was next. He said he was ready for the next adventure.”

“Hmm,” Louis pondered quietly, “does this mean I’ve won? ...No,” he rose his voice to full volume, “I shall simply continue my feud with /you/ then.” 

He held out his hand.

“This is the one time I will do this. This is the beginning of our never ending battle, got it? Me and my Lost Boys against you and your crew. As a show of fairness I will tell you my real name is Louis, but if you ever use it I will murder you on the spot. To you from now on and to everyone else I am Peter Pan.”

Harry thought Louis was saying a lot of scary stuff to be smiling and bouncing around so cheerfully as he was, but he shrugged and shook Louis’s hand anyway.

“Got it.”


	3. Chapter 3

Louis wasn’t exactly sure why, but when he returned back to the hollow tree that served as the Lost Boys’ house and told them all about what happened with Hook’s sneak attack, he didn’t tell them about the fact that there had been a /new/ Hook.

For some reason, Harry’s big eyes and apparent inability to lie made Louis want to take him under his wing and protect him. It was almost laughable that Harry would be trying to attack him. Although Louis would always be a child (and was extraordinarily proud of this fact), he couldn’t help but think that Harry looked like a child too. Before, the adults had been the enemies because, well, because they wanted everyone to run things the /adult/ way. The old Hook and his crew had all been grown ups and Louis snubbed his nose at them and tried to thwart their every move, but Harry...he was young too. It was hard to reconcile what appeared to just be another Lost Boy as the “enemy.”

Tink had apparently noticed his unusual quiet and tried to get him to tell her what he was thinking about. 

“Go away Tink, I don’t want to talk right now. Bother one of the other boys or something.”

She fluttered angrily, but left Louis to his thinking anyway.

“Peter! Why do you look like you’re thinking?” one of the boys called out.

“Because I am.”

“Well, save it for later, we’re supposed to be having a feast. You’re starting to look /grown up/”

Louis sighed.

“Of course I’m not. You can’t always just use that to make me change what I’m doing. We all know I’m never gonna grow up. Not if I can help it!”

“Well come back over and have some fun instead of sitting alone all gloomy-like,” someone else chimed in.

Louis reluctantly put his thoughts about Harry to the side for the time being.

*****

Harry sat in his office with his boots up on the desk. He was brooding and contemplating Lo--/Pan/. Brooding, specifically, because Harry thought it a rather Hook-ish description.

Pan had not been in the least what Harry had expected in any way. This particularly bothered him because Harry had already /known/ he didn’t know the first thing about being a pirate or his crew, but he thought he could at least anticipate a tricky little boy. It should be fairly simple to just focus on catching him and forget that he didn’t know how to be a pirate, sure, but Robert had neglected to tell him quite a bit.

More than just simply spirited and a little conniving, Pan was apparently capable. He had knocked out Harry’s entire crew with apparent ease, aided of course by the /flying/ that Harry had also not been told about. And apparently there was a whole /group/ of boys like him? Harry was definitely beginning to see the necessity of Neverland choosing to keep them alive.

And although Robert had said Pan would never grow up, he seemed to already be somewhat grown. Whether he liked it or not, Harry had seen the calculating look in his eyes when he was discovering that Harry was the new Hook. And he’d been mature enough to trade his real name for Harry’s. Though he was small, he definitely looked to be in his teens, so he really was not much the boy he thought himself.

Harry still didn’t know what to do with him, though. The whole feud seemed like a farce to begin with, and Harry didn’t have a cunning or nefarious bone in his body. He supposed, though, that he had no other options. What else was he to do with his time?

*****

Three days later and Harry had finally come up with a plan. Well, it wasn’t really a /plan/, but he felt it was time he did /something/. They were going to storm the tree that the crew had told him the Lost Boys lived in. 

The crew insisted that with enough soot, no one would be able to tell he /wasn’t/ the old Hook. Pan might even doubt himself. Harry, for his part, just felt dirty.

They attacked at sundown in hopes that all of the boys would actually be there. They were, but that did not mean things went as they had hoped.

As soon as they entered the tree, the boy nearest them let out a war cry and leaped at one of Harry’s crew, who impaled him with a knife, but then all of the boys were swarming them. Peter was above it all, flitting about and causing harm at random. Although he was very invested (for Louis, anyway) in his permanent battle with Hook, it mattered less to him whom he was fighting, and a lot more that he was fighting at all. Battle was exciting and he hardly cared who had just stabbed when he was busy admiring the speed and precision of his own attack.

“Peter! You switched sides?” the boy he was fighting yelled.

“I’ve got to make it interesting somehow,” he replied before flipping over the boy’s head and kicking him in the base of the skull. Perhaps this was part of the reason none of the Lost Boys had ever grown up. Unlike Louis, they aged normally (well, one could only assume it was normal, what with Neverland’s odd time), as did Hook’s crew.

After a rather short time, both sides were decimated, but it was clear Hook was losing. And shortly after /that/, Hook was the only one of his crew remaining standing and Louis flew up to him.

“Shall I end this now?”

“Until tomorrow,” Harry said casually, feigning disinterest as Pan brandished his dagger. He really hoped Robert was right about the whole ‘not dying’ thing because it looked like that was about to be tested. Louis plunged the knife into Hook’s stomach and twisted.

“I suppose I’ll see you later then.” And if he didn’t, Louis was sure he would forget.

He and the remaining Lost Boys dragged all of the bodies outside, not bothering to check if any were actually dead or alive. They would be gone by morning either way.

None of the boys brought up Peter switching sides. It was, after all, something he did fairly often, and only the newest children didn’t know that. All the new ones were most likely outside anyway.

“Swimming in the lake?” Louis suggested.

All the remaining boys cheerily agreed, and they soon forgot everything that had happened as they splashed in the lake under the moonlight.


	4. Chapter 4

When Harry awoke, he immediately rolled onto his side and vomited. Ugh, he wasn’t sure he could even get up. He groaned and tried to pull himself upright and his vision started spinning. He stumbled sideways and caught himself on a tree. Good. Okay. Upright. Now what?

It was dark outside, but he could make out the lumped figures on the ground. He saw a small stream of blood coming from a pile (maybe three bodies?) and came to a sudden realization. Robert had never said anything about the others. He had said Hook and Pan wouldn’t die, but he had never said if that was the norm in Neverland. Harry was starting to think not...and if that was the case, then...what had he just done?

Had he and his crew just killed a bunch of innocent children? Bloody hell, did he even have a crew anymore?

“Captain,” a voice called from behind him and Harry whirled around.

His first mate was walking quickly up the beach to the trees where he was standing.

“Are any of the others around?”

“All dead, sir, but I found something interesting. You’ll want to come have a look-see.”

Harry gently pushed himself off of the tree. He seemed alright, so he followed Smee down to the water.

A small dinghy was pulled up on the sand and when Harry looked closer he saw three figures inside. They barely looked alive, and yet they looked...it was his old crew! The ones that had abandoned his exploring expedition. There were only three left, then. Harry shuddered to think what happened to the rest.

“Well? Let's help them out. These are some of my old crew, must’ve been floating around lost like me.”

Smee shrugged and started to pull the bodies one by one off of the floor of the dinghy and onto the sand.

*****

Louis was thinking about the new Hook again.

This bothered him particularly, because Louis didn’t usually think of /anything/. Especially not any/one/. The only things his mind was usually filled with were new ways to have fun and what he wanted to eat next. Well, until Wendy. She had been so new, and exciting that he /did/ think of her quite a bit. She intrigued him more than just a passing fancy as most things were to him. Then again, when the new Hook appeared, he had started forgetting more about Wendy.

Either way, he didn’t like how much Harry -- /Hook/, he corrected himself -- was occupying his thoughts. Louis knew he was somewhat selfish, but he liked it that way. He didn’t need to be wasting time pondering something that wasn’t amusing or food.

*****

Harry had recovered fairly quickly after Robert had saved him (most likely due to Neverland’s help), but his new crew was still half dead. It had been maybe four days, and they were hardly able to sit up. They couldn’t even keep down the watered-down gruel Harry had tried to give each of them. It was frustrating.

What, exactly, was the most feared pirate of Neverland supposed to do without a crew? What was intimidating about him now? Harry left the ship in an irritated huff. He decided to walk around the far half of the island, which he hadn’t seen yet. He started out stalking through the forest to let out his frustration, but quickly stopped. He felt silly trying to be intimidating, even to the little songbirds and squirrels. Harry had simply not been made to be an angry or scary person.

He had been made to be a baker, he thought. He should have just continued through with the apprenticeship under his father, but no, he had to be childishly naÏve and run away to be an explorer. Well he certainly hadn’t thought that through -- otherwise he wouldn’t be in this mess at all. Sure, baking was boring, /mundane/ work, but he wasn’t sure why he had thought he could find his way to South America if he got lost on his way home from the open market.

Harry looked up to discover that he had somehow walked near the edge of a lake. It was a beautiful, sparkling blue, with colorful blooming flowers covering the banks. There were large moss covered rocks in one side of the water and on them -- were those -- /mermaids/?

As Harry gasped in wonderment, the three mermaids looked over and saw him. They started giggling and Harry walked forward as if in a trance. He had thought nothing about Neverland could shock him, but there were /mermaids/. He continued forward, trying to get a better up close look when he was startled (so much he nearly let out a very unHook-like scream) by a pair of arms lightly circling his neck and a voice whispering in his ear.

“You’ll want to watch out for the mermaids. If you go over they’ll entrance you and you’ll never leave until you die of starvation and thirst.”

The soft breath and the brief brushing of lips against his ear tickled and it took Harry a moment to process what had been said. 

“What?”

He turned and the arms were gone. He saw, instead, a very wet Pan pulling on his clothes.

“Pan? What on earth are you doing?”

“Besides helping you? I was having a swim before /you/ interrupted by foolishly trying to die by mermaid. And we’re not on Earth, honestly, the things you don’t know.”

“Did warning me really require scaring the socks off me by sneaking up?”

Louis peered down at Harry’s boots speculatively.

“Really? Where did they go? Your boots are still on.”

Harry was briefly confused before he sighed.

“It’s just a turn of speech.”

“Well it doesn’t seem like a very good one if it makes no sense,” Louis sniffed, “and anyway, I couldn’t have them hearing me tell you their secrets. You can’t imagine they’d be very happy about that, as it is already, well…” he gestured toward the mermaids on the rock, who sat pouting and glaring at Louis.

“Why did you help me at all? I thought you said we were supposed to be sworn enemies?”

Louis frowned. He had been asking himself the same thing and he really wasn’t sure. He knew he was supposed to fight Hook, /wanted/ to fight Hook. But when he had looked up and saw Harry walking toward the mermaids, he had just felt exasperation and had just unthinkingly flown up to save him. Something about how new Harry was to this world, and how naÏve he was, well it just made Louis want to warn him -- to fix it and tell him about all of the dangers out there so he would know. And besides, wasn’t /Louis/ supposed to be the one defeating Hook? Yes, that was it.

“/I’m/ supposed to be the one defeating you. It’s hardly fair if something else kills you. Then where’s my satisfaction, hmm?” he answered Harry finally.

“Okay then, what are these? Are they safe?” 

Louis looked over to see him pointing down at some particularly cute water nymphs and smiled.

“Yeah, those are water nymphs. They’re great fun to play with.”

“Nymphs? Are those like fairies? Ro-- the old Hook said you were a friend of the fairies.”

“No, nymphs are their own thing, I think. And I don’t know about fairies, but I’m alright with the pixies, I guess. I have Tink, and she’s a pixie. I would never be able to fly if I was only friends with the fairies, they’re selfish, cold little buggers. Pixies are much friendlier, if a bit annoying.” 

Harry was in awe. He could talk about nymphs and mermaids and pixies and fairies -- and all with such a casual manner. The fact that these things were /real/ was enough to stun Harry into temporary silence. He was amazed that things like this could be so apparently normal to someone like Pan.

“Tink?” Harry finally thought to ask, “Who is she?”

“My friend, I guess. She follows me around quite a bit and helps me out. Always trying to get me to talk though.”

“Hmm,” so that was why Pan could fly. He had a pixie friend...but how did she help him fly? “I still don’t understand how you can fly, though.”

Louis looked at him as if he were crazy.

“Pixie dust, of course. Just faith, trust, and pixie dust is all you need really. Anyway, don’t let this make you think we’re not still fighting. This is an eternal battle we’ve got going on here,” Louis ended sharply.

“A-alright then. Should I leave now?”

“Unless you want my blade in your neck, I’d suggest it,” Louis said threateningly, internally shaking his head that he’d briefly forgotten they were fighting. They weren’t supposed to casually talk, and he shouldn’t have shared the secret of how he could fly. He had just been so amazed that Harry /didn’t/ know, and Harry was interesting and easy to talk to. He needed to stop forgetting so often, it would damage his reputation.

He watched as Harry scampered off in fear at Louis’s sudden change in mood and sighed. He leaned down to pet a few nymphs on the head, but quickly straightened up, saluted the mermaids, and flew back across the island to the camp of the Lost Boys. He was a little reluctant, as several of the newest recruits he’d picked up were rather obnoxious and whiny, but he thought it best since the sun was setting soon anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

Louis shook his head violently as the chatter around the campfire grew impossibly louder. Here he was, in the middle of a spontaneous Lost Boy feast with a bunch of rowdy little boys talking at top volume and play fighting, and he still couldn’t get all of the questions to /stop/. Questions and thoughts about the new Hook absolutely filled his head to the point he was afraid it might burst.

It didn’t help that Hook and his crew hadn’t made any attacks in the past week and a half. Louis was on his toes, constantly wondering when they would choose to attack next and why they hadn’t done so yet. Of course those thoughts led to more: Was it perhaps because Harry just couldn’t think of anything? He didn’t seem to be very good at fighting or plotting, but maybe it was all part of his plan to appear that way. Did Harry know that Louis thought he was very much like many of the Lost Boys? Was he going to try and use that to his advantage? 

The questions continued on and on, not even just specifically about Harry, sometimes they were about himself. He questioned why he was so intrigued by Harry in the first place, and why he always felt the need to help him. He thought himself in ridiculous circles, unable to break the chain.

Tink was, of course, persistent as ever. She and some of the older Lost Boys who had been in Neverland for quite a while asked Louis frequently about his sudden change of pace. What was he thinking about? Why did he suddenly go from carefree and loud to the one boy that was always stewing quietly in the corner or going off by himself. They never got answers though. Louis just insulted them until they left.

It was driving him insane that he couldn’t just have his regular passing thoughts of no real importance. Usually his thoughts were varied and imaginative, but now he was stuck with a constant revolution of thousands of questions about the same things /all the time/. Louis needed it to go away. He couldn’t concentrate on having fun.

*****

Harry was stumped and upset. He didn’t know how to plot against Pan. Quite honestly, the boy was quicker than him and better at fighting. He also couldn’t really see the point of them being enemies to begin with. The whole situation was strange. 

His crew could finally walk around, but they were in no condition to fight. None of them had had any ideas either. And there was nothing to /do/ on this blasted ship!

Harry had taken to exploring the island a bit more, although he had been a little hesitant after the thing with the mermaids. He didn’t want to accidentally fall prey to any other magical (or no) creatures. Harry was also unsure of what he should do if he ran into Pan or one of the Lost Boys. Was he supposed to fight them?

Today he decided to go see what was past the lake. He walked past quickly to avoid the mermaids, and continued through the thick forest. He couldn’t see anything except green for a very long time, and then, suddenly he began to see quick flashes of gold. At first he thought he was just imagining it, but no, the air was shimmering and bright sparks of gold were intermittently visible through the trees. Harry eagerly pushed forward and entered the most breathtaking clearing he could’ve imagined. There were larger old, wizened trees bordering the clearing and one more -- the largest -- in the center.

Harry walked forward very slowly, looking around in awe at the beauty. Multicolored flowers coated the ground and on the far side of the clearing, it looked almost as if some of them formed what looked like a sort of waterfall. The gold glowing he had seen through the trees were fairies -- or pixies, he wasn’t sure which -- flitting about through the air. They were very tiny and each glowed brightly. He slowly continued walking around the clearing, entranced by the gorgeous scenery.

*****

Night was falling and Louis was literally attempting to pull his hair out. He felt like crying -- something he couldn’t remember ever having done before. The thoughts, the ever circling thoughts that were crowding his head wouldn’t give him any rest. Louis was pretty sure this was it: he was actually going to go over the edge, barmy, completely cuckoo.

He blamed Harry completely. If that fake pirate had never shown up with his big baby eyes and confused him this never would have happened. He could have just kept fighting the old Hook, the /real/ Hook, forever. He could have been content with their constant battle and neither of them would ever win, but they would always fight and keep things /interesting/.

Tink was more concerned that ever and had refused to leave his side at all for the past several days. This time Louis was so absolutely desperate for any sort of respite that he actually listened to her pleading.

“You think they’ll be able to help with this? I guess anything’s worth a try. Alright, lead me to the pixie city.”

They flew quickly across the island and Louis paused above, looking at the sparkling gold patterns created by the movement of the pixies.

“It’s pretty, I suppose,” he told Tink before they both flew down to land next the the large center tree. A movement different from the flickering of the pixies caught Louis’s eye and he turned and stared briefly in shock. Harry was standing /right there/ staring into the hollow of the tree in amazement. Louis didn’t think, he just jumped and landed on Harry, pushing him to the ground.

Harry was stunned and it took him a moment to process what was happening. Louis punched him several times in the chest as they rolled around. Louis had started crying at some point and was yet to notice as he screamed angrily at Harry.

“You! This is all your fault! I want my mind back you fake pirate. You smelly little piece of squirrel shit, leave my bloody mind alone! I can’t do /anything/, you’ve ruined everything.”

Harry was beyond confused and hesitant to punch the crying boy back, but he reluctantly pushed at him in hopes of stopping the blows.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Pan! What am I doing to your mind?”

“I! Can! Never concentrate! Anymore!” Louis straddled Harry’s stomach and yelled angrily in his face between heavy breaths and weakening punches.

The pixies were sending calming magic down upon them that neither of them noticed, but eventually Louis collapsed onto Harry’s chest, still crying and feeling oddly sleepy. 

“I just can never think. All of those questions all the time,” Louis whimpered quietly, muffled further by Harry’s ruffled shirt.

Harry, for his part was still extremely confused about what exactly had happened in the last ten minutes of his life. His chest ached quite a bit from the number of punches and his shirt was quickly being soaked through by Louis’s tears, but he reluctantly hugged the boy regardless. Clearly he was upset, and Harry believed that nobody deserved to feel alone when they were upset.

Louis thought about slapping away Harry’s arms, but in the end he was just too exhausted and too tied up in his own head to do it. Plus, they were...comforting. Louis didn’t think he’d experienced something comforting before, but Harry’s arms were warm and heavy on his back, which eased something in his chest a little. Strange.

Eventually, Louis stopped crying and wiped his face, rolling off of Harry. 

“It’s very pretty here, what is this place?” Harry asked softly.

“The pixie city. Tink brought me here because I was going crazy. All those thoughts were just suffocating me. I’ve never had that before.”

Both of them were extremely relaxed, thanks to the pixies’ magic. Harry pushed himself up off of the ground and held out a hand to Louis to help him up. Louis just looked up at him in confusion. The deep crease in the side of his face from the ruffles on Harry’s shirt just made him look even more ridiculous and Harry struggled to keep from laughing at how silly the confused boy looked.

“Grab it. It’s to help you up.”

“Hmm, strange custom.”

Louis took it anyway and Harry helped him to stand shakily.

“You’re right. It is really beautiful here. I feel so calm, and--and the thoughts. They’re not there! I can process everything that’s happening /now/.” Louis said in wonderment.

They walked a few steps over to the center tree to look in the hollow. The inside glowed gold, but there were different tints. It was set up like a bustling, multi layered city inside, and certain parts were a beautiful rosy gold, while others were most definitely a blue-gold, and still others shimmering green-gold. A rainbow of colors and /more/ shone in glimmering gold tints inside the tree and Louis’s breath caught at how--how...there just weren’t words for how enchanting it was. It made something ache deep inside him in a beautiful, longing way. He wanted to be a pixie, to live there in all that entrancing, glittering beauty. 

He looked up and saw how absorbed Harry was by the tiny gorgeous city in the tree. Louis stared at how open and wondering his face was -- it was fascinating. His hair reflected the gold, but his eyes, they seemed to capture it. Little multihued gold flecks danced inside them, making the green look like a bottle-glass sea, tossing around the little pinpoints of light in the waves. Harry finally looked up and made eye contact, and Louis got an idea.

“Do you trust me?” he whispered, unsure of /why/ he felt the need to lower his volume. Perhaps it was that the majesty of the city below demanded awe and respect only communicated by silence.

“Yes,” Harry whispered back, eyes still dancing distractingly.

“Take my arm and close your eyes.”

Harry grabbed tightly onto his upper arm and scrunched his eyes tightly shut. Louis reached into his pocket, scattering a small handful of pixie dust over them.

“Believe,” he breathed softly in Harry’s ear.

“What?”

“Believe, Harry. Just believe.”

“O-okay.” Harry was uncertain, but he tried anyway. 

Louis smiled as they began to float above the trees. They had a lovely view of the flickering pixie lights glowing and shimmering down below.

“Open your eyes,” Louis’s voice stayed soft, not wanting to break the moment.

Harry opened them and looked down in confusion, gasping when he saw how high they were.

“But-- we’re-- I’m /flying/.”

Louis laughed.

“Yeah. Pretty neat isn’t it? I told you, all the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust. It’s all you need.”

“It’s...magical up here,” Harry said, looking around. He could see the pixies below them and the faintly glowing flowers in the clearing, but he could also see everything in the open night sky above them, and he could see out across the island, and the ocean in every direction. Everything was ten times as awe inspiring coated in the gentle silver moonlight.

Louis was still staring at Harry closely. Now that the pixie city was out of range, Louis had thought the tiny gold lights would be gone from Harry’s eyes, but up here, the entire night sky was reflected. Miniature stars waltzed across his irises as galaxies slowly turned, and Louis swore he could see the entire universe in them, every part performing a slightly different routine. It was mesmerising.

With neither boy realizing it, they began to mimic the stars, gently swaying in midair while revolving slowly. They locked eyes again and Louis noticed Harry looking at /him/ with a look very similar to that which he had gazed at the pixie city with, full of awe and admiration. Louis felt his chest twinge again with that same feeling he had felt when looking into the tree himself. Very odd, that.

Harry’s hair caught briefly in the updraft as they landed and Louis started. He hadn’t even realized they had been slowly sinking back to the ground. The pixies quickly covered the clearing in more calming, sleepy magic. Louis briefly noticed Harry’s small, peaceful smile before they both sank to the ground, asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

The pixies worked together to move the boys back to where they /should/ have been sleeping. They may not remember, but then again the pixies hoped their magic may have helped them feel more comfortable with each other in the long run. Tink, in particular, liked Harry. She hadn’t wanted to at first, she hadn’t liked that Wendy-bird. Tink was of the opinion that nobody could ever be on the same plane as Peter, but Harry was what he needed. Wendy had encouraged Peter’s behaviour and although Tink loved him, she recognised that it was unsustainable.

Peter may have believed himself invincible and unchangeable, but no creature could survive in permanent stasis. It was hard for Tink to watch because it was so difficult for him, but Peter was growing up. She believed Wendy had realised that everyone had to grow up (otherwise she would have stayed), but it wasn’t enough for her to /know/ and just let Peter continue on as he was. Harry, though, was somehow just /causing/ it. He was teaching Peter to grow up, and he was teaching him why it was a good thing.

Peter had yet to notice. He had noticed the changes, but he hadn’t yet connected what they meant. Tink was not looking forward to the day he put it all together, but it had to be done. And she would help him, as she always had.

*****

Louis awoke, terribly disoriented, in his usual hammock, uncertain if he should be there. He was entirely unsure if he had just had the strangest dream or the strangest /night/. Either way he was angry with himself, it was just a matter of more or less angry. He /needed/ to stop forgetting about Harry being Hook, being the enemy, being /not someone he should be so...personal with/. His thoughts weren’t making sense anymore, but he didn’t care. He was just angry and wanted to sit there being angry forever. Maybe stab something.

His growling stomach forced him up and he reluctantly went out to the fire to see if anyone had started breakfast yet. They hadn’t and, being the lazy child he was, Louis simply sat and stared at the fire instead of starting it himself. The fire was kept burning all of the time for simplicity and he watched the pretty golden sparks at the edges of the flames. They snapped brightly, swimming against the background of the forest...it reminded him of the pixie lights floating in Harry’s eyes.

Louis smacked himself and rolled face down in the sand. He didn’t care if he breathed it in and choked anymore. Good. He deserved it.

*****

Harry awoke in his cabin aboard the ship and immediately did a double take. Is this where he had fallen asleep? He slowly started to remember the night before. Had that been a dream? If it had been real, then how would he have gotten back to his cabin? He supposed he could ask a crew member if they’d seen him come back--

A knock sounded at the door.

“Captain?”

“Yes?” Harry got up and opened the door, looking down at his stout first mate.

“Oh, just making sure you made it in. Wasn’t sure if something had happened to you on the island. You went out for that walk awful late and then I didn’t hear you come back last night.”

“Hmm, so I /did/...yes I’m fine, just a rather.../strange/ night.”

“Alright sir, shall I start breakfast?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Harry sat back on his hammock. Wow. Last night...if that was really real, it had been amazing. He had /flown/. And the city, the clearing, all of Neverland, everything had been so beautiful. And...Louis. Harry had no idea what to do with that. There had been just so many things going on, but at one point it had seemed-- Harry had felt almost as if-- he shook his head. But he could still feel Louis’s arm as he clutched it, high in the air. And he could hear his laugh at Harry’s surprise that they had been flying. And...and /everything/. Harry couldn’t block out his own thoughts. Not when he wanted to remember so badly. Everything had been so lovely, even when Louis had been angry and crying, it was okay because it had gotten better and Harry had-- well, he didn’t know what he’d done but it had gotten better.

And then-- Harry stopped his train of thought, letting his hands fall over his face. He was undergoing a bit of self realisation as he started to piece together...oh no. This was bad. Of course it was Harry that would do this. Only he was stupid enough to let his teenage hormones take control (because that’s all this was, he was adamant) and make him start to fall for a /child/, no matter how long he’d been around. A child that was determined to kill him.

Why hadn’t he just become a baker, married a nice young lady, lived a normal boring life on Earth, and died in a reasonable amount of time? Instead, he had to have dreamt up the crackpot idea of /exploring/. Yes, then he’d gotten lost just as he should’ve expected and now he was here stuck pretending to be a pirate, pretending to be /intimidating/, for centuries. That was practically forever in Harry’s book. And then he’d had to bollocks it up even further by deciding he was interested in the little shit of a boy with no common sense, that /flew/, and was much too mischievous and killed with much too much ease.

Could he be any more of a fuck up?

*****

Louis had decided that whether that night had been a dream or not, it was going to be one now. The thoughts (mixed with even more new ones) still swirled around in the back of his mind, but they were not so overbearing now and he was able to concentrate. It felt as if his head had expanded to accommodate everything now. 

Louis threw himself back into being his old self, not letting himself ever sit and stew, constantly suggesting new activities for the Lost Boys. All of them were at a loss as to why Hook and his crew hadn’t done anything for so long, so they decided that they would try to take over his ship. Louis would fly up and see where the ship was, and then the rest of them would join him to fly over and attack from the sky. Once they landed on the ship their only goal was to incapacitate any and everything on board.

The crew spotted the boys flying overhead and ran to alert the captain.

“Captain! Captain! The Lost Boys are flying above the ship. We think they’re going to attack!”

Harry looked up from the paper he’d been tearing to pieces out of boredom. 

“What? Can they do that? Well, I guess, make that not happen?”

“Alright then, what do we do with the captives?”

“I’m coming out to join you. Leave Pan to me, put the others in the cellar. Force a couple to walk the plank or something to scare the rest.”

Harry hoped those that walked the plank knew how to swim...and that there wasn’t anything too vicious in the water. He sighed and stood, grabbing his hook and swinging on his long red coat and ugly hat. Well, time to finally face Pan. This should be interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

The deck was a mess of noise. War cries and the clanging of metal filled the air and Harry quickly looked up to try and spot Pan. There. He sat, perched on some of the rigging, clearly looking for the best opening. Harry flinched as he suddenly swooped down into the tangle of flashing blades below. He really hoped Pan was as capable as he seemed. 

Surprisingly, the pirates seemed to be winning. Probably due to the abundance of rope and netting lying around that they tied the boys up with. 

Several minutes later Harry saw his chance when Pan (the only remaining free Lost Boy) flew down to cut some of the ropes. Harry quickly snatched him about the waist. 

“Over here, Dobson! The rope! Help me tie him to the main mast. You, Briggs, grab his knife.”

Louis, being notably smaller than Harry couldn’t do much to fight back with his arms pinned to his sides. He couldn’t reach to bite either, but he gave several vicious kicks to Harry’s shins. One of the crew members snatched his knife away and he gave a scream of anger. Louis was very much not used to having anything but the upper hand. He couldn’t fly and he had no weapon now.

Harry turned him and shoved his back against the mast of the ship as several of his men circled rope around. They cinched it tightly enough that Louis had to let out a gasp of air for lack of space. One of the men made a rather elaborate looking set of knots at the end, pointedly testing them where he could see. Louis sagged against the mast, thinking. He couldn’t see how he was going to get out of this one.

The obnoxious feathers on Harry’s hat swayed as he turned to face his men and their groups of tied up captives.

“Take them belowdecks for now...the plank just may need to be tested later,” he said in the most Hookish voice he could muster. He had been practicing, but he still felt guilty. They were still children, honestly, some of them didn’t look more than seven.

He turned to face Louis as the Lost Boys were dragged out of sight.

“Well, I don’t suppose this is where you thought you’d be by the end of this little...attack?” Harry was honestly a little amused by how upset Pan seemed to be that he’d been captured. He wondered if this had even happened before...Pan /was/ usually very sure of himself. Harry was not a mean spirited person, but he couldn’t help rubbing it in just a bit that cocky little Pan had finally been caught.

Louis spit at him and Harry clucked as it fell short. 

“I don’t think so, Pan. You can’t catch me.”

“What are you gonna do? Just keep me here forever? You know I can’t really die, so you’d better just go ahead and kill me so we can start over.”

Harry’s eyes gleamed.

“But that wouldn’t be nearly as fun, would it? Over so soon? I would hate for all the planning that surely went into this to go to such a waste. In fact, I just /might/ let you stay here forever.”

“You wouldn’t, you’re too nice. Look at you, you’ve probably never even squished a bug. You just don’t have the guts to look me in the eyes and stab me.”

Harry just shook his head, walking closer to lean over him.

“You talk so big, but you’re not so tall now that you can’t fly, are you?”

Louis’s pride was hurt and he was angry, but he was also noticing a sort of charged atmosphere between himself and Harry. He sensed that Harry’s relaxed taunting held some sort of underlying tone as well. It felt almost as if his anger and Harry’s banter were just a sort of...joke. Very odd.

Harry snatched the small green cap from his head with the hook.

“The tables have turned now, eh?”

“They’ll turn back soon enough. And I’ll make sure they stay that way next time.”

Harry looked closely at Louis’s face and gently placed the hat back on his head.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

Louis’s brain immediately jumped to that night in the pixie clearing, but he pushed those thoughts away.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

A small, half smile made its way onto Harry’s face.

“Yes you do. Smee told me he saw me go for a walk at sunset and never heard me come back. Did you wake up somewhere else too?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Louis insisted, gritting his teeth, unsure as to exactly why he was blushing.

“I’ll take that as a yes. You had a crease in your face from my shirt the whole night,” he let the tip of the hook leave a light scratch along Louis’s left cheek. “It looked utterly ridiculous, you know. You always look faintly ridiculous. So self assured, but your clothes don’t even fit. And that silly hat,” Louis looked pointedly at the thing sitting on Harry’s head and Harry chuckled. “I know, not that I’m one to talk. And yet...you’re not really silly at all, are you?”

“Certainly not. I’m intimidating and I will kill you once I get these ropes off. Plus my clothes are not ridiculous. If anything /your/ obnoxious red, ruffled, feathered getup is ridiculous.”

Harry laughed.

“And there you go again. You know you aren’t much the little boy you think you are. I’m not sure if you ever were but, regardless, you aren’t anymore.”

“What? What do you mean? I’ll always be a boy, I’ll never grow up if I don’t want to.”

“Really? And that’s what you want? I’m not sure that’s true. I took everyone’s word for it at first, but no,” he placed the hook under Louis’s chin to tilt his face up. He looked closely at his eyes and tilted his head. “No, you’ve most certainly done some growing.”

Louis was speechless. His mind was in an absolute turmoil. What did this fake pirate know? He would never, /never/ grow up! But what was he looking at? How did he sound so certain? And what, really had just happened in those last fifteen minutes? Louis had been so angry and then, and then...Louis’s thoughts continued in uproar.

The heel of Harry’s boot ground satisfyingly on the deck as he turned sharply and left, “accidentally” dropping a knife where Louis could reach it with his foot as he did so. He just hoped Louis didn’t have his crew murdered in their sleep. It would take him awhile to get loose anyway.

*****

Harry was awoken by his door creaking open. He opened his eyes very slightly, still keeping them hooded, to see who was there. Anyone walking into his private cabin in the middle of the night without knocking or an invitation was not to be trusted. He watched as a careful figure eased its way inside and floated forward. Pan. Harry decided to wait until he was close enough. Pan floated directly above his hammock and brandished the knife that Harry had dropped for him. Harry shot his hand up suddenly, knocking it out of his hand and onto the floor, before grabbing his wrist and rolling, dragging him to the floor and landing on top of him. He pressed his forearm over Louis’s throat.

“Hello Pan, what a pleasure to see you here.”

Louis squirmed underneath him and Harry pressed his weight down harder to stop him moving.

“Tut tut, another thing you didn’t think through very well. And you tried to kill me with my own knife, how cold.”

“Get off of me, Hook. You would have done the same.”

“Oh, on the contrary, I would most certainly have not. If I had been captured and given an out where there was no other, I would have simply taken it and left. Not gone back to bite the hand that fed me.”

“Then you clearly are lacking in courage.”

“No, Pan, I just have more intelligence than courage. What did you do with the Lost Boys? Did you set them on my crew?”

“No, I just cut their ropes and told them to leave, they’ve all flown away.”

Harry relaxed.

“Good. You should’ve done the same. I’ve been having my crew teach me hand to hand combat. Horace is rather good and I’ve learned quite a bit, wouldn’t you say?”

“Perhaps. If you hadn’t pretended to be asleep it might not have been enough.”

“Of course it would. You’re so self-assured, it’s infuriating.”

“I try. Can I get up?”

“Will you go straight back to the island and leave my dagger here?”

“Yes.”

Harry slowly eased off of him and rolled onto the floor, using the edge of his hammock to pull himself to standing. He held a hand out to Louis, who took it, this time with no hesitation, and let Harry pull him to his feet.

“I’m following you because I still don’t trust you.”

“And here I thought you said you did,” Louis muttered.

“And here you insisted you had no idea what I was talking about earlier,” Harry shot back.

“Fine,” Louis held up his hands in surrender and walked out of the room and up to the deck with Harry following close behind.

He clambered up onto the railing of the ship and flew straight up. He did a quick flip and then quickly zoomed back to give Harry a peck on the cheek.

“Wh-what was--?” Harry blushed and stuttered in shock.

“It’s a thimble. Wendy said people on Earth do it as a sign of thanks. I guess you didn’t have to let me go...either time,” he shuffled his foot in the air uncomfortably as he stood slightly above Harry. Louis was not at all used to giving thanks, but he thought perhaps the situation had merited it (although if it hadn’t been Harry he still wasn’t sure if he would’ve done it).

“That’s not-- er, that’s not--” Harry cut himself off, “Well Wendy’s quite a forward little--” and again, “Thimble?”

“Yes, it’s an Earth thing. I thought you might be familiar, but perhaps you’re from somewhere else?”

“I’m from Earth, but that’s not a thimble, it’s most definitely called a kiss. And it’s only for--”

“Well, it’s the same thing,” Louis interrupted, “and I haven’t got time to stand here and chat about your strange Earth things all night. I’ve got to get some sleep at some point.” Louis saluted him and flew off as Harry started to speak again.

“But it’s--” he sighed. Damn. Harry dragged himself back to his cabin while his mind spun. He was going to have to get his thoughts about Pan in some sort of order.


	8. Chapter 8

Louis lay in a practically catatonic state at the edge of the forest. He hadn’t let any of the Lost Boys near him since he had come back from Hook’s ship last night, nor had he spoken to anyone. Tink was impossible to move, but if he could have made her leave, he would. He wanted to stew in his own misery by himself.

On the fly back to the island, Louis had started thinking again about what Harry had said. He had sounded so certain that Louis had grown and it unsettled him. As soon as Harry left, however, he had pushed his thoughts to the side to focus on getting free and rescuing the Lost Boys. It had taken almost half an hour just to get a hold on that blasted knife with his foot. Then he’d had to try to get it up to a hand without dropping it...needless to say, it wasn’t the easiest thing he’d ever done and it had taken quite a bit of concentration.

However, when he’d returned to his thoughts, he came to a few uncomfortable realisations. He forgot most things and people. He forgot most of his past and what he’d done as well, so how did he /know/ he didn’t grow? The few memories he had from early on featured a reflection much more similar to the five year old boys he used to bring to Neverland. When had he started bringing older children? When Louis really thought about it, he noticed he never brought boys younger than six anymore, and they were more often around eight to ten years old.

He didn’t used to think that much about height because he could always fly to get higher up...but he didn’t always need to anymore. Climbing trees didn’t require flying for a boost, and he had no issues picking fruit when he was simply walking.

No. Louis did not like this /thinking/ thing one bit. These things implied /change/, and change implied growing. Louis did not want to grow. He refused. And yet, it had all happened so gradually that he hadn’t noticed. He’d been around for quite a few years, and none of the Lost Boys were there long enough to notice changes...Oh no, this was very bad.

“Tink?”

She fluttered closer immediately.

“Do I-- am I different than when I first came to Neverland?”

Tink gave him a measuring look before deciding he could handle the truth.

“Really? But-- but I’ll never grow up! I said, I said, I...can’t actually remember why I know that. But I won’t!”

She flew closer to pat him on the cheek.

“No! You don’t need to comfort me, because it’s not a problem. It’s not happening. Y--What?” he spluttered, “What do you mean it’s not just physical?”

Louis straightened himself up.

“I will /never/ do things the grown up way. I do not act grown up, I only concentrate on fun! I do not think like--” Louis cut himself off and put his head in his hands. “Is that what that was? All those...suffocating questions? But--but the other pixies fixed it. They’re not everywhere anymore.”

Tink shook her head.

“It wasn’t the pixies? What do you mean I just /grew/ to accommodate them? I did nothing of the sort! I didn’t--I didn’t grow at all, especially not for more thoughts.”

Louis huffed.

“I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to. I am not going to grow up.”

He angrily took flight, heading to the lake so he could play with the water nymphs. Frustrated tears sprang into his eyes and he impatiently wiped them away. Maybe the nymphs would make him feel better. Playing with Nymphs wasn’t an adult thing to do anyway, so there!

Louis dived straight from the clouds into the middle of the lake, startling the mermaids and nymphs, as well as the birds and squirrels in the surrounding trees. His clothes would dry at some point later, he supposed. He surfaced and, recognising his face, a few nymphs came over. Louis simply hugged them, treading water. He needed that comfort feeling again. The tears wouldn’t stop coming because he was so frustrated and confused, which frustrated him more because he didn’t /want/ to cry, which, in turn, only made him cry harder.

The nymphs helped a bit. They didn’t seem to mind being held, and they were soft and squishy and very cute. Still, it didn’t help enough, and Louis continued crying for a long time, while Neverland gently created a current to bring him to land. He squeezed the nymphs closer and sat on the bank, still unable to regain his composure. Louis wasn’t entirely sure why he was crying, but he knew that he was upset and confused and it hurt.

“L--Pan?”

Louis recognised the voice immediately. Harry.

“Why are you always around when I want to be alone?” he replied tearily, wiping his face and refusing to look up.

“Are you...okay?”

Harry sounded sincere and Louis couldn’t muster up the energy to be rude.

“You--you t-told me I-I’m growing up. And I a-am, T-tink told m-me, an-and I don’t want t-to,” he reluctantly let the nymphs free, as they were beginning to protest.

“Oh,” Harry walked over to crouch next to Louis, feeling terrible that he’d caused this. “That’s not a bad thing, though. It’s good, you know, change is necessary.”

“Well not for me. I d-don’t want to, and I-I’ll get old and boring, and I’ll /die/.”

“Not necessarily. Not every grown up is the same. You can still be yourself, you’ve just...learned more. And I doubt if it’s taken you half a century to get to your teens that you’ll get old very fast, and as for dying...you still live in Neverland, you might not have to worry about that. And if you do, it won’t be for a very long time.”

“Being grown up is not just knowing more. They all want to do things the same way. All rules and everything,” Louis protested, not noticing he had stopped crying at some point in the conversation.

“Maybe a lot of them are like that, but they aren’t all. And look at you, you’re grown up in some ways already, but you’re certainly not boring.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t gotten all the way there yet. I could be.”

Harry laughed.

“You definitely won’t be, trust me.”

“Okay.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just staring out over the lake.

“Why are you being nice to me? We’re supposed to be enemies, why can’t you get that? But you’re always helping me. I don’t need it,” Louis spoke up.

Harry gave a small smile and acted on impulse, leaning over to kiss Louis briefly on the mouth.

The boy sat back and blinked comically in surprise.

“What do you have to thank me for?” he asked, curiously.

Harry had to work very hard not to laugh. He shrugged.

“A lot of different things,” he answered vaguely.

“But I’m the one that should be thanking you. You’re the one being nice when you don’t have to.”

Harry made a noncommittal noise.

“It’s not always necessarily just a thanks, sometimes it’s just...nice with certain people.”

“Earth customs are very peculiar. That thimble /was/ a little different, I guess. How can you tell what they’re for?”

“You can’t really tell, I guess,” Harry shrugged, “and Earth things are only weird to you because you live /here/. To us, Neverland is extremely...unusual.” He paused, debating whether to ask, “What do you mean it was different?”

“That’s stupid. What’s the point if you can’t tell what it’s for? I don’t know, I feel weird,” he brought his fingers to his lips, “Tingly and warm, like magic. Do you have magic?”

Harry chuckled.

“No, unfortunately I’m about the farthest thing from magic there is here.”

“Hmm, very similar to pixie dust if you accidentally get it in your mouth.”

“I’d imagine there aren’t very many people that have that particular problem. If you weren’t constantly flying it might not happen.”

Louis stared at Harry for a second before quickly bringing a hand in front of his face and blowing. Pixie dust scattered all over Harry’s face and in his hair, and Louis collapsed with laughter at how shocked Harry looked.

“How strange...you’re right,” Harry smiled.

“Well I do know what I’m talking about when it comes to pixie dust,” Louis said importantly.

The dust was so fine it covered Harry’s skin and hair in a barely visible layer of gold. It winked and glinted in the sun, making him appear as if he was glowing and simply getting brighter and darker. Louis looked down at his hands, but they weren’t glowing. The water had dissolved the dust, leaving no trace. He frowned, turning his hands over.

“Do I normally look like that?” he asked.

“What?”

“You look all glowy from the pixie dust. Do I normally look like that?”

“I do?” Harry leaned over the lake to try to see his reflection, “Yeah, usually your hair is like that, but it’s not this bright--wow.”

Louis nodded, appeased. It made sense since he usually used much less and simply threw it over himself. He just wanted to make sure that he could sparkle too.

“It’s very pretty, your hair looks like metal. Like bronze,” Louis said and reached out to touch a curl, looking shocked when it still felt like hair.

Harry pulled some of his hair up to his face to look at and tried to brush it off, which didn’t help at all. He sighed and crawled forward to the lake, dunking his entire head in and shaking it around.

“There,” he sat back, dripping water.

Louis frowned at the loss, but didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t think this through, did I?” Harry asked as he tried to wring out his long hair. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a length of string. Piling his hair on top of his head, he tied it in place, which made Louis laugh.

“You look like Tink like that.”

“Really?” Harry asked archly.

“Well nobody else here puts their hair up.”

“Then we’re practically one and the same,” Harry said sarcastically.

“Oh! Speaking of Tink, I forgot, but I have to go back and talk to her. I sort of left in the middle because I was upset.”

“Okay. I guess I should probably get back as well,” Harry looked up to where the sun sat high in the sky. Food would probably be nice too.

*****

Only when Louis landed back at camp, ready to tell Tink about what happened at the lake, did he realise he’d forgotten again. He’d forgotten completely at some point during their conversation that he and Harry were supposed to be fighting against each other.

He sighed and decided to just go to sleep instead of finding Tink. Who cared if it was the middle of the day?


	9. Chapter 9

The forest was a blur of green as Louis flew at top speed. The sun was just rising and he had been thinking all night. He had decided that Harry--/Hook/-- needed a reminder. Before the day started or the boys could even miss him, he would fly to Hook’s ship to tell him it was time he took fighting seriously. Louis would fight him right then, if need be, to prove his point.

He landed gracefully on the deck and made his way belowdecks to Hook’s sleeping quarters. Louis stopped briefly at the door to collect himself before turning the knob and stepping in quickly, shutting it behind him.

Harry looked over from his place on the hammock, staring boredly at the ceiling.

“Lou-/Pan/. Why are you here?”

“I needed to talk to you. We need to be clear about this whole enemies thing, right? I need you to actually be setting up some attacks and such. You’re the fierce Hook, and you’ve gotta try to capture me and the Lost Boys. That’s how this works. Time to stop being nice and talking like we’re just normal people.”

“If I’m the fierce Hook, then shouldn’t I /not/ do everything you just said, just to spite Pan?” Harry asked calmly.

“No! Because you’re not. You’ve got to play the game, okay? I’ll fight you right now, if I have to.”

“Why would you do that?” Harry rocked his hammock lazily, looking unbothered.

“I ought to at least get a few jabs in. You’ve almost used my real name twice now. I meant it when I said I’d kill you on the spot.”

“Sure, sure. You called me ‘Harry’ though.”

“I did no such thing. /I/ have respect for the importance of names.”

“You did, though. In the pixie clearing, when you told me to believe.”

“I didn’t,” Louis repeated, sounding less certain.

“You most certainly did. You said ‘Believe, Harry. Just believe.’”

“Well, even if I did -- which I didn’t -- it was different.”

“How so?”

“It was-- we were-- it just /was/, okay? And no more of that.”

“Whatever you say...Lou.”

Louis flew over to hover above Harry, knife out.

“I’m not kidding, Hook.”

“What?” Harry put his hands up in mock surrender, even as he continued lazily lying back and rocking his hammock. “It’s not your name. Maybe I just got tired of ‘Pan’ and started calling you a random syllable.”

“Well don’t.”

“Ah, but how can you stop me? If I’m Hook, then infuriating you is what I should do.”

“But you’re not!”

“You just told me that I am. So which is it? Am I Hook, or am I not?”

Louis sighed and sat cross legged in mid air, crossing his arms as well.

“You’re /supposed/ to be.”

“Well what am I supposed to do with that information?”

“Pretend. Play along.”

“So I pretend to be Hook, but I’m not actually allowed to be him?”

“Yeah, you’re too...not-Hookish.”

“I resent that. If I’m not Hook then when do I have to be Hook and when do I not have to be Hook?”

“I don’t know, but come up with some plans for fighting.”

Louis unexpectedly lunged forward with his knife, but Harry grabbed his wrist and used the momentum of Louis’s lunge to bring him to lying beside him in the hammock. He pried the knife out of his hand and tossed it to the floor, holding both of Louis’s hands together in one of his where they could do no more harm.

“I told you I’ve been practicing hand to hand combat. Do you think I have anything better to do on this bloody ship?”

Louis pouted at how easily he’d been beaten and Harry kissed him.

“Stop doing that! You have nothing to thank me for,” Louis protested.

“Do you really not like it?”

Louis paused to think.

“Well, no, I do, but it feels like magic and I don’t trust it,” he paused and frowned, “and I had weird dreams after the last time,” he added.

Harry laughed so hard he wiped tears out of his eyes and Louis straightened up indignantly.

“What’s so funny?”

Harry rolled over on his stomach, away from Louis, shielding his face with a tired hand.

“Go get some sleep before you can’t anymore.” He waved his other hand vaguely at the door.

Louis briefly considered stabbing him, but decided he really didn’t deserve it just for not saying why he was laughing...still. It was a little tempting.

“Fine.”

******

“So...we’re just going to attack? That doesn’t seem like much of a plan. And I seem to recall Mr. Smee saying that didn’t work out too well the last time,” one of the crew members told Harry.

“Well then don’t die,” he replied flatly.

Harry was tired. He didn’t know what all normally went into treacherous plots, but he didn’t see how there could be much creativity in simply attacking the same group repetitively. Attack did not sound fun to him and he was really not looking forward to being responsible for more murder. Especially of children.

Still, apparently, an attack was the plan for the day, as he could stall it no longer with pretending to try to think up better plots.

They brought the massive ship up onto the beach and the crew clambered off. Four fully grown men, led by a weak willed sixteen year old, off to murder some small children. ‘How honourable,’ Harry thought. Nonetheless, (due to aforementioned weak willed qualities) he trudged forward through the sand toward the Lost Boys’ camp.

Shouts sounded as they were spotted and Harry braced himself, resigning himself to the fact that he would probably no longer have a crew after this, and that he would most likely wake up among the corpses of little boys. Several boys ran toward them, brandishing knives, spears and sticks. Those armed with only sticks did not seem particularly bothered by this fact, which, Harry suspected, was because they were too young to understand what was really about to happen.

The fight was in full swing, with more Lost Boys appearing by the minute, when Harry noticed Louis finally appear. He flipped over the others, looking for a particular fight he wanted to join in on. Although there were many more Lost Boys, Harry’s crew seemed to be winning, most likely due to actually having fighters in the midst, unlike the old crew. Louis landed on his feet a couple metres in front of Harry, quickly helping a few of his boys fight off one of the crew members.

When the crew member was on the ground, (dead or incapacitated, he didn’t know) Louis looked up and saw that Harry wasn’t participating. He shook his head and began to make his way over to scold him for not really playing along, when there was a splitting feeling in his back. The feeling quickly turned to agonising pain and he saw Harry’s face turn horrified. ‘Leave it to Harry to be surrounded by pain and death, and only be unsettled by his enemy being stabbed,’ Louis thought before his world was flooded with black.

Harry was scared and furious. He figured the fury could be more useful at the moment, so he let it take over.

“Dobson!” he rounded on his crew member. “What the hell did you just do?”

Dobson looked intimidated by Harry’s anger, but answered nonetheless.

“He was coming for you, boss. Pan’s their best fighter and…”

He trailed off under Harry’s withering glare.

“Firstly, I can take care of myself. Secondly, I am almost certain he was not going to kill me. And /I cannot actually die/, I don’t know for sure about him. I have told all of you: always leave Pan to /me/. He is my business, do not touch him, do not harm him. Unless I explicitly say so, you will let him alone no matter what you think he’s about to do.”

Dobson nodded. He wouldn’t have thought before this that Harry even could glare. Now that it could be seen, it was clear that his was a glare you did not want to be on the wrong side of.

Harry kneeled down next to Pan, completely ignoring the fight that continued only a few metres away. He lightly slapped Louis’s face, but the boy stayed limp. Harry wasn’t sure what his next step should be. Looking over him, Harry thought that it would probably help to try and get the sand out of the large wound in his back. He debated for a few seconds before deciding there was nothing else for it. He picked Louis up and carried him to the ship.

He set Louis on his hammock face down, and went to the kitchen to get a flask of clean water, brandy, and a cloth. Harry uncertainly pushed Louis’s shirt up out of the way and poured the water over his back. It seemed to flush out some of the sand, but it was hard to tell with all of the blood. The cloth was thin, but it would have to do; Harry pressed it tightly against the gash in his back, and winced in empathy. It soaked through fairly quickly, but he continued pressing, in hopes that the bleeding would slow. 

After several long minutes, he pulled the cloth back, only to see that it looked much the same. He uncapped the brandy and slowly poured it over in hopes of sterilising the wound. Louis’s back muscles jumped and Harry pulled back, wondering if he was waking up. He looked around for more cloth and, seeing nothing else, pulled off his sash. It was red, so it may be difficult to see if it was helping the bleeding, but at least something was covering it.

He wrapped it tightly around Louis’s waist and carefully turned the boy onto his back. When his back made contact with the hammock, Louis’s eyes shot wide and his mouth opened in a silent scream. He jolted up to sitting to take the pressure off.

“Hi. You’re alive, good. Are you okay?”

Louis grabbed his face and kissed him.

“I thought you told me not to do that anymore?” Harry was confused.

“Well it’s not you doing it, is it? I just-- /thank/ you. That’s only ever happened once before, and this time was much, much scarier. I don’t remember it being like that last time at all.”

“What happened?”

“Everything was just really close. Just black nothingness all closing in on me, and I couldn’t breathe. All I could feel was my back and the sand, fuck the sand hurt.”

“I’d imagine everything I did hurt too, though,” Harry said sheepishly.

“It’s okay. It didn’t hurt as much as the sand...well, except for that last part. I could feel that it was at least being cleaned, and when I could concentrate on the changes it was easier to ignore the nothingness closing in. I could remember that I wasn’t actually there. Thank you.”

 

Harry was stunned.

“Wow. That’s intense...I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Sorry that it happened. It was my crew member.”

“Wasn’t you though. I have the strangest urge to give you another thimble. Is that normal?”

Harry laughed.

“I don’t know, but if you want to that’s fine with me. It’s called a kiss, though. You’re kissing somebody, not giving them a thimble.”

“Whatever. It’s the same thing.”

This time when Louis kissed him, Harry slid a hand to the back of his head and held it for a moment longer. Louis was really going to be the death of him. Louis had a slight crease between his eyebrows, like he was thinking.

“You sure there’s not magic involved? I feel considerably better now.”

Harry shrugged.

“There is no magic, I promise. It’s probably Neverland healing you.”

“No, not my back, my...insides I guess. I just feel better.” He frowned and touched a hand to his lips, before pulling it back to examine, as if the kiss would have left a print.

A knock sounded on the door, and it opened to reveal Smee.

“Captain.”

“Mr. Smee.”

“Erm, what is--” he cut off his question with a look from Harry. “Horace and I are still here, the others are dead.”

“Okay. Thank you. You may leave now.”

Smee did so, scurrying away, well used to staying out of the way of Hook (whichever one there currently was).

“You probably need to regroup with your crew, and I with the Lost Boys,” Louis sighed.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay? Your back is still--” Louis interrupted him by holding up a hand.

“It will be fine, Neverland will heal it soon enough.”

Harry still looked uncertain, but nodded. Louis took a pinch of pixie dust from his pocket and threw it over himself, saluting Harry and flying out of the room.


	10. Chapter 10

The deck groaned as Harry flung himself down dramatically upon it.

“You alright, captain?” Horace asked.

“Yes. I need sun, but I can’t be bothered to actually do anything,” Harry mumbled into the dirty wood floor.

He had been thinking quite a lot the past few days, but that didn’t mean he had been able to come to a decision. Harry was thinking in circles about what to do with Louis. It was clear that the boy had similar feelings for Harry as Harry did for him, but he clearly hadn’t realised it yet. 

Louis, understandably, did not seem to have ever experienced any sort of romantic emotions before, and clearly didn’t know how to deal with them. Harry didn’t have the first clue as to what to do. He decided he would leave it up to fate. If he went on a walk about the island and ran into Louis then he would somehow deal with it, but if he didn’t run into him, he would feel completely validated in moping around the ship forever. Or at least a few more days.

Harry hauled himself up to his feet and sagged against the mast for a moment before straightening and marching off the ship. He approached the jungle-like side of the island near the lagoon and began his trek through the mud. Mostly he just took this route so he could feel satisfied that his frustrated stomping created splashing and squelching in the wet ground. 

It had been perhaps close to an hour when he ran into Louis. The boy quite literally smacked into him as he was swinging upside down from the branches of trees and had missed that a person was walking below said trees. Louis slipped off, but caught himself before he hit the ground by quickly hovering. Harry was not so lucky and had fallen directly back on his arse in the mud, clutching his forehead where Louis had knocked into it.

Louis looked down at who or what he had smashed into and began to laugh when he saw that it was Harry.

“Well, fancy seeing you here like this,” Louis said slyly, swooping down close to Harry’s face.

“Ow. Doesn’t your head hurt? It was your head that injured mine.”

Louis shrugged.

“Not really,” he paused and moved Harry’s hand and hair out of the way of his forehead, “did I really hurt you?” he asked, frowning.

“It’ll be fine.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see that anything was there. I really didn’t mean to,” Louis said somewhat frantically, for some reason needing Harry to understand that it hadn’t been on purpose.

“I thought you said you didn’t normally apologise,” Harry taunted lightly.

Louis frowned more deeply.

“I don’t. But I didn’t mean to hurt you. I feel...bad.”

Harry sighed and didn’t respond. Louis twisted his hands around in a nervous, guilty silence before leaning forward to hesitantly kiss Harry.

The captain sighed again.

“What for?” he asked wearily, “I didn’t do anything for you.”

“I don’t know, I guess I just fancied it could mean sorry too. But like, a better sorry. One that actually means something.” He backed up and resumed his nervous hand twisting while Harry stayed silent for several long moments.

“It...can, I suppose.” Harry abruptly ran a frustrated hand through his hair, “You have no idea, do you? You can’t even see what’s happening in your own mind.”

Louis looked up, startled by the conviction in Harry’s words.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You don’t see why you’re having all these feelings? And this intrigue about your ‘thimbles,’ as you call them?” Harry made air quotes.

“What?”

“You’re-- you have-- How do I say this? I told you before that you were growing and you got upset, but look at you. Think about all these things you’ve been feeling. Why do you feel so different about me? Why is it so confusing--”

“I don’t know! But I’m not growing up, I don’t want to!” Louis interrupted, although he felt a twinge at the lie. He knew now that he couldn’t stop himself from growing.

“Just listen. It’s because you’re gaining more capacity for emotion. Do you know what that means?”

Louis shrugged while pouting. He did not want to listen to this, but it was /Harry/ and he’d asked, so Louis sat there in midair with his arms tightly crossed across his chest.

“It means you can feel and understand more emotions, more /complex/ emotions. Not just things like anger and sadness, but maybe being mad at something that makes you happy. Or being sad and happy at once about the same thing. And you, wanting to kiss me, having those dreams you mentioned after I kissed you the other day, that ‘magic’ feeling, those are all just symptoms of emotions.”

“/What/ emotions?”

“Romantic ones, it seems.”

“Romantic? What’s that?”

“Things like love. Things that make you concentrate more on one person, and make them seem special. They make you want to have contact and kiss them, and to spend your time with them. They become an exception to your rules and you just want to do anything for them. You just want them to be happy.”

“That’s-- that can’t just be one emotion.”

“It is, and there’s more that I can’t put into words. I told you: it’s complex.”

“But that’s-- it’s--” Louis suddenly turned angry, “When did you talk to Tink?”

“What? I’ve never seen her not with you. I don’t even think anyone besides you can talk to her.”

“You made that up! You made it up based off of everything that I-- you made it up to confuse me more!”

“No. I would never.” Louis sprang up and hovered in standing position above Harry, who continued speaking earnestly. “Honestly, I wouldn’t. I...I have romantic feelings for you too. I love you, I think.”

Louis’ face flickered indecisively between anger and belief before he took off at top speed above the trees. Harry sat back and ran a hand over his face. Great. Fuck.

He sat there in the mud for a long time. Eventually he rolled over and crawled slowly for a bit until he eventually realised he was back on two feet and heading toward the lake. When he arrived, he spent a while sadly playing with the water nymphs in the shallows, but they soon decided it was time for them to sleep for the night. Harry waved goodbye as they retreated back into their cave and left to continue his walk halfheartedly. After a bit of aimless wandering he noticed two things: at some point the moon had risen, and gold twinkling lights were surrounding him. So apparently it had turned to night while he walked, and he was approaching the pixie city. 

As he broke through into the clearing, his breath caught the same as it had before (and as it probably always would). The beauty of it shocked him and his memory did it absolutely no justice. Harry started again as he noticed a small figure huddled by the center tree with a pixie hovering by its shoulder. Louis. He was unsure if he should approach, but Harry figured since he was already here, he might as well make his presence known. As he came closer, he could see that Louis’ body was shaking from the tears that were wracking his body. Harry carefully crouched by him, trying not to startle him.

Tink tapped Louis’ ear and appeared to communicate something.

“Why are you here?” Louis asked him quietly.

“I was just continuing my walk and I saw you. I just wanted to help, I don’t want you to be unhappy, please believe me. I haven’t talked to Tink, and I didn’t make up anything earlier to make you more confused. If anything, I want you to be less confused because I see how awful it is to be all mixed up all the time.”

Louis had stopped crying, but stayed curled up with his head down. Harry hesitantly tipped his chin up with a finger so he could see his face.

“Did you hear me?”

Louis leaned forward and kissed him, grabbing Harry’s face to keep him in place and pressing closer. Harry threaded his fingers through Louis’ tangled, dirty hair and leaned into the kiss until he felt the boy pull back. 

“What for?” he asked tentatively, not sure he wanted to know the answer if Louis was just going to continue living in denial. Then again, that kiss had been different, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up too high. 

“I’m sorry. For crying. I don’t like it and I hate feeling weak. And I’m sorry for getting mad and leaving and accusing you. But I...don’t think that’s /why/ I kissed you. I think I just...wanted to? Like in the hammock. It’s comforting and it still feels like magic, so that’s...nice.”

“Okay. I can live with that I guess.”

A cautious smile made its way onto Louis’s face.

“So you feel the same ways? You want the same things?”

“Probably quite similar, yes.”

“Okay. Where do we go from here? How do things change? We can’t really keep fighting, can we? It wasn’t really working to begin with.”

“I don’t know, perhaps we should try keeping things somewhat the same and just change things gradually so it’s not too much at once.”

“Okay. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Neither do I.”


	11. Chapter 11

About a week had passed since the night in the pixie clearing and Louis had been occasionally showing up on the ship, usually in Harry’s quarters just to give him a kiss and leave. He had returned Harry’s sash, and had decided to sleep over, squishing himself into the spare space in Harry’s hammock. The next morning, Harry woke up confused at the lack of Louis in his cabin, or anywhere on the ship. He spent the morning moping around until sometime in the late afternoon, as he continued to steer the ship aimlessly across the waters, a blur of green moved across his line of vision and he felt something lightly perch on his shoulders. He looked up to see Louis’ grinning face leaning over him as he sat on his knees atop Harry’s shoulders. He leaned down to kiss the captain upside down and then flipped over his head to float in front of him as if he were laying on his side. 

“Hello captain, how goes it?” he winked exaggeratedly.

Harry laughed and reached for Louis’ cap, plucking it quickly off of his head to examine.

“What’s this?” he asked, toying with the straight red feather now stuck in the cap.

Louis shrugged.

“Though I ought to show a little representation. After all, your eyes match my outfit, I ought to give a little leeway,” he responded.

“Why did you leave early this morning?”

“Woke up early and had an idea. Had to find the right bird. It takes a while, you know, especially to find a nice one that doesn’t mind you taking a feather.”

Harry caught him about the waist and turned him upright so he could kiss him. Louis wrapped his legs tightly about Harry’s waist and leaned into the kiss. Harry walked backward until they were leaning back against the ship railing and pulled Louis closer when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and looked over to see Smee trying to discreetly back away belowdecks from what he walked into. Harry sighed and rested his head on Louis’ shoulder.

“What?” Louis asked.

He just shook his head gently, but Louis was persistent.

“Harry. What?”

“Just gotta figure out what to tell Smee. He was just up here.”

Louis uncoiled his legs from Harry’s waist and moved back slightly.

“Is that a problem?”

“No...I just hadn’t thought about Smee and Horace. I don’t really know what to say...and how can I stop being Hook? Doesn’t there need to be one?”

“Maybe just don’t say anything. I’m not gonna talk to the Lost Boys. As for the Hook thing, I’m sure Neverland’ll figure that out. It’s smart.”

Harry sighed.

“I guess.”

*****

“So how is it that you can understand Tink? No one else can, as far as I know,” Harry asked speculatively as he ran his fingers through Louis's hair. 

“I don't know. I never really thought about it. Does she even try to talk to you? She just talks to me,” he shrugged and Harry grimaced as Louis’s shoulder dug into his ribs.

“But she doesn't even appear to--”

“Let's go for a walk.”

Harry was briefly taken aback by the abrupt interruption, but he let it go and nodded.

“We're a little far away from the island right now, so it might be a bit.”

“Pssh,” Louis scoffed, “it's like you forget about /flying/.”

He grabbed Harry's wrist and dragged him up from the hammock, throwing a handful of pixie dust from his pocket carelessly behind him over Harry's head. 

“Remember: believe.”

Louis surged forward, still tugging a floating Harry along by the wrist and flung open the door. He zoomed up the stairs and into the glare of the setting sun fast enough to disorient Harry, who looked faintly sick and was beginning to spin a bit off kilter. Grinning at Harry's apparent inability, Louis circled back around him and grabbed him about the waist from behind to guide him. 

“Thanks,” Harry said softly.

“Of course.”

They flew under the thick cover of the trees and stopped. The vibrant, multihued rays of light shone in between the slanted tree trunks and filtered softly down through the canopy. Louis gently turned Harry around so that they hovered, facing each other, with Louis’s hands on his waist. 

Harry leaned forward to kiss him softly and their bodies began to sway lightly in the breeze. They waltzed slowly around in the air, revolving and weaving between reaching branches and unforgiving trunks. The glimmering oranges and purples, the muted dusky blues and yellows, the warm glowing reds and pinks all painted their skin like stained glass murals. Each gazed at the other in wonderment at the beautifully alive colors dancing across their skin. The reflections in Harry's eyes were so beautifully entrancing: his wide green eyes reflecting intermittent glints of orangey-pinks and light stripes of violet created a hypnotising kaleidoscope that Louis found it difficult to look away from. They spun and swayed and dipped and pulled each other closer. They spun until the colors faded and pinpricks of stars were the only glimmers of light illuminating small, bright patches of skin. 

They held each other close, still slowly revolving, the lengths of their bodies pressed almost seamlessly together. Louis’s face was buried in the abundance of curls tucked behind Harry's ears and he pulled back just enough to kiss him. It seemed like they had been kissing for hours (but then again, one can really never be certain of time in Neverland) when they broke apart to the sound of a shout.

“Oi! Peter, is that you?”

They looked down to see a scrawny blonde boy squinting up at them and Louis sighed. He slowly brought them down to stand on the ground and stepped toward the Lost Boy.

“Hook?! What is Hook doing here? He can fly too?”

“Erm. Just-- just hush up for a moment. That’s not really Hook. You see there was some sort of ...confusion.”

“What? How is that possible? What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter, he’s not Hook and that’s all you need to know. Why aren’t you back at camp?”

“‘Cause I didn’t want to be. I wanted to know where you were because you haven’t been back for a few days.”

“It’s none of your business. Go back and go to sleep.”

“You’re no fun anymore. You’re starting to sound like an /adult/,” the boy sneered the word distastefully.

Louis looked as if he’d been smacked. He was gone in the blink of an eye, curled up in the high boughs of one of the trees, leaving a confused Lost Boy and Harry. They awkwardly nodded to each other in acknowledgement before the boy left and Harry tilted his head up, searching the dark trees.

“Louis?”

“What?”

“Where are you? Can you come back?”

“Yeah.” Louis flew down slowly to the ground and sat carefully with his knees to his chest.

“Are you okay?”

“No,” Louis whispered, “I don’t think so.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I had-- I had thought, from when we talked before down by the lagoon, that maybe I can’t stop the growing up, but that doesn’t mean I have to act like normal adults. But what he said...I am, aren’t I? That was no fun, that was the type of thing a parent would say, wasn’t it?”

“No it wasn’t. Everyone can be secretive. Telling him your doings were none of his business was something most kids, adults and in between would do. You’re not going to suddenly become a different person Louis. Okay? You’re going to stay Louis.”

“You say that, but you don’t really know. How am /I/ supposed to know? How am I supposed to just trust what you say when you have no way of knowing?”

“Lou...just believe. I can’t be certain, no, but I do know that growing up doesn’t necessarily make everyone a normal ‘grown up.’ It’s not age that determines your behaviours.”

“You’re just saying that to make me shut up until it slowly happens anyway and then I won’t notice because by then I’ll be all boring and old.”

“Shh, Louis, you know I would never do that. I wouldn’t lie to you that way. Come here,” he held out his arms for a hug and Louis hesitantly crawled forward into his embrace, “you don’t have to act any way you don’t want to.”

“But what if I /start/ wanting to because I’m getting old?”

“You won’t, but even if you did, then there would be nothing you could do about it and so no point in worrying.”

“I guess. That’s not very reassuring though.”

Harry squeezed him tighter and nestled his nose into Louis’ unruly hair.

“Maybe not, but I didn’t promise reassuring, I promised truthfulness.”

“Okay. Thanks then.”

Louis turned for a kiss and Harry grinned a bit before leaning down to press their lips together gently.

“I love you.”

“I guess I love you too.”

Harry smiled into Louis’ neck and squeezed him tighter still.


End file.
